'Benefits' of small holed hay nets

[Garry]

Basically, there are none! see link for details (OK I know it's a feed company, but interesting anyway)

www.dengie.com/friendly-feed-advice/study-questions-hay-net-benefits/


Does anyone know if there have been other studies on this?

[antares]

I would call that quite a significant difference 45g/min to 28g/min so 2700g/hour vs 1680g/hour or to go further the potential for a horse to eat 32kilos in a 12 hr period in a large holed haynet or 20 kilos in a double meshed net Am I calculating that right or am I missing something?

"There was found to be no significant difference in the volume of consumption when comparing a large-holed net (1,357g), small-holed net (1,014g), Elim-a-Net (886g) and double-meshed net (843g).

The same was found to apply to the actual rate of intake over the 30 minutes. The large-holed net recorded 45g/min, the small-holed net 34g/min, Elim-a-Net 30g/min and the double-meshed net 28g/min. However, there was a significant difference during the first 10 minutes between the large-holed net and Elim-a-Net, at 53g/min and 29g/min respectively."

[janwilky]

I saw that on FB a few days ago and had exactly the same thought as Antares - that those differences didn't seem insignificant to me.

I struggle with nets, Lucas can demolish a full haynet in record time and I found that very small-holed nets (like Tricklenets) frustrated him to the point where he simply ripped holes in the net (he destroyed two expensive Tricklenets in 6 weeks!!). I'm currently using some 3cm-holed nets which I hoped might frustrate him less but still slow him down, but initial indications are that they don't frustrate him but don't slow him down very much either. Hay fed from the ground gets trampled on, wee'd on and poo'd on (MONSTER!) so we're between the devil and the deep blue sea. There's no easy answer for horses like him, and I suspect his desperation to eat is closely linked to having ulcers/gut issues. My other two are happy to pick slowly at a haynet after their initial hunger has been satisfied, but Lucas stands there and gorges until every scrap has gone. 

[wills]

Nov 10, 2014 21:13:06 GMT 1 janwilky said:

I saw that on FB a few days ago and had exactly the same thought as Antares - that those differences didn't seem insignificant to me.

I struggle with nets, Lucas can demolish a full haynet in record time and I found that very small-holed nets (like Tricklenets) frustrated him to the point where he simply ripped holes in the net (he destroyed two expensive Tricklenets in 6 weeks!!). I'm currently using some 3cm-holed nets which I hoped might frustrate him less but still slow him down, but initial indications are that they don't frustrate him but don't slow him down very much either. Hay fed from the ground gets trampled on, wee'd on and poo'd on (MONSTER!) so we're between the devil and the deep blue sea. There's no easy answer for horses like him, and I suspect his desperation to eat is closely linked to having ulcers/gut issues. My other two are happy to pick slowly at a haynet after their initial hunger has been satisfied, but Lucas stands there and gorges until every scrap has gone. 

This sounds like my mare & it's a nightmare. Have yet to find a solution that slows her down but doesn't frustrate her! Keep me posted Jan if you find a solution

[kjr]

Haven't some poll, neck issues/ pain / soreness also been attributed to use of small holed haynets?

[lizpurlo]

Kjr, I've read that too, and it does worry me. I now always use the silage nets rather than the large-holed ones, and it does appear to be frustrating for them as well as rather an unnatural eating position. I can see the sense in putting heaps all round the stable, but they would just get soiled and/or trashed. A ground level rack of some kind with a mesh lid which dropped down as the hay was eaten, perhaps?

[janwilky]

Nov 10, 2014 21:51:45 GMT 1 kjr said:

Haven't some poll, neck issues/ pain / soreness also been attributed to use of small holed haynets?

Yes, but equally there are lots of issues caused by being overweight.... so it's a difficult one. Mine live out, so I don't have the option of feeding from the stable floor, and Himself insists on walking through and weeing on anything left out on the yard. I fix the nets as low to the ground as I can, but it's a compromise. Mind you, I've had heaps of problems with him and none of them have involved neck/poll soreness and his teeth are good so that's something I suppose....

[KimT]

This is a conversation I have with a friend of mine at the yard. I use a small ish holed haynet to feed Lady. She has soaked hay but I use the net for 2 reasons. 1- she will still gain weight on soaked hay (flipping good doer) so I use it to slow her down a little. 2- she is a bit of a mucky mare and will regularly cover her stable floor with wee. This would include where ever her hay went so I dont like to put it on the floor.

My friend says she doesnt like haynets because of the neck/poll issues and I said that if she could find a better solution then I would trial it but otherwise I will need to continue with haynets.

[Deleted]

I agree with Antares. They're declared it not significant because of the statistical test they chose to use. As a horse owner I think that amount is very significant, particularly if dealing with an overweight horse or pony or a very good doer.

There's plenty of studies showing horses having damage from using small holed nets but I get my horses checked regularly and have yet to be told they're suffering after years of using them so I'm not about to throw my nets out just because someone else's horses might not get on with them As for stress, I can imagine if a horse is used to being fed hay loose or in big holed nets they'd find the small holed nets annoying for a while but again, my lot are out there now seemingly quite content, and one of those came to me suffering from gastric ulcers and being incredibly stressy about hay and food and he isn't now yet is still fed from small holed nets - the main difference for him is that I never leave him without hay.

[janwilky]

I agree Michelle. Lucas does get frustrated with small-holed nets, but as an ulcer-prone horse and a very good doer I need to stretch his hay supply out for as long as possible. I'd like to work towards him having ad lib hay but he needs to find his off switch too! I did try feeding ad lib to see if he learned to self-regulate but he just kept on eating. That was before I treated the ulcers though, and I'm hopeful that he might feel a less desperate need to gorge himself now that he's a lot more comfortable. The new 'continental' style nets are going down well, I wasn't sure they were going to slow him down at all but I think they might be a little bit. But what I did notice this morning is that he isn't yanking at the net, but eating smaller mouthfuls in a more relaxed manner. The other two would both benefit from ad lib hay, neither of them are greedy and they regulate their weight much better than Lucas does, I just need to train the big fella to trust that he won't starve if he slows down a bit 

[VeronicaF]

I feel better after reading this, as I always feed their horsehage on the floor, and was only questioning this today, after seeing neighbours horses looking happy getting stuck into their hay nets, so I was questioning if mine ollie and charm would be happier having them in nets.

however
my little mini horses do have them in nets as they are stabled at the moment due to land flooding and them being tiny very tiny horses
they have them in small hole nets, over wise they would get their tiny tiny hoofs caught in them.

[holi]

I had small holed net for my mare and physio told me to get rid of it because of potential problems in poll/neck. Was difficult to manage her after that but I actually found pulling hay apart in a pile On the ground and stuck a chopped up carrot in the hay pile slowed her down as she spent a lit of time rooting for it!

[specialized]

How can they say 30% less is insignificant?

[Catrin]

My local chiropractor claimed to earn a lot from small–holed nets because of the damage they caused to horses' necks and backs. She grumbled at me constantly because my horses had such good necks as I fed them ad lib from the ground. I had Munch stations to minimise waste, but consider my horses' well–being was worth any wasted haylage.

[nich]

I use a hay rack in a corner, and if in for more than a few hours, small holed nets. The horses can get enough from the racks to sate the initial desire, then the small holed nets stretch the hay out. They muck it up in no time on the floor. Mind you we have homegrown haylege and you can feed more of that than hay to give the same calories because of the water content.